Howdy y'all!

It was mighty nice seeing all of y'all at the Auction last night!  It looked like we had more guests attending than I've seen in a long time! Everyone looked festive, and it seemed like we raised quite a bit of money to enhance our school. Thank you to everyone who helped out in one way or another!  This is one of the main reasons our school can function and be as successful as we are!  I'm curious to see who our winning bidders are! 

I know I haven't blogged consistently over the last month, but it has been some of the busiest weekends ever for this teacher (outside of school events).  I'm really looking forward to some much-needed downtime during Easter break- what about you?

We've been busy in the classroom as well.  Let's start with our events from the previous week.

We read a story by Eric Carle (author of the Very Hungry Caterpillar) titled, "Rooster's Off to See the World".  We used the main ideas of the story to practice our ability to sequence the story correctly.  Here we are using some technology to do so!

 


















We also started learning about the season of spring.  We discovered what types of weather we may see in this season, and we learned that it is a season of growth and new life.  Here are some drawings of what the students picture when they think of spring.

 

We also had a great time studying and recreating the art of Frida Kahlo. The art is currently hanging in our room, but they will make their way home soon!  We are sure you will be very impressed with their rendition of Kahlo art! 

We ended our exciting week with a visit from Mr. Ridino, his paramedic partner, and his ambulance!  They spoke with the class about emergencies, being safe, what to expect if a paramedic visits you, and what the inside of the ambulance looks like!  Take a look at these excited kiddos:

                   Thank you so much for visiting us! We had a great time!

Now on to this week!  We started the week off with some great centers.  Our centers included completing a calendar for April, creating thank-you cards for our visitors last week, practicing writing sentences (sounding out on our own), a listening center, practicing our sight words, and creating a book about Easter eggs (all while practicing more sight words and color words recognition)!  Fun times! Take a look:

We also listened to a few stories from the Bible. The kindergartners really enjoy when we read to them from the Children's Bible!  This week we learned the we are the "sheep" and Jesus is our "Shepherd".  We colored a mini book about that Bible passage, then we created some Sheep art! Check it out:

We have been stepping things up in Kindergarten when it comes to what each child can do independently.  We are really working on listening to directions, sounding out words confidently (with kinder spelling), and working on writing addition or subtraction sentences.  Here is an activity we completed on some word problems that taught our kinder kiddos how to draw pictures to find answers to addition or subtraction problems:

We look for "clues", like does the word problem ask for how many "in all"? If so, we should add.  If it asks for how many  "are left", then we should subtract.  This is great preparation for what's in store in First Grade next year! 

We've also had a lot of fun being "Helper of the Day" so far.  Here are some helpers working on the white board during our morning routine or some wiggle breaks:

  We also had some students come up to the board to practice our W's this week during our Phonics lesson:

Speaking of W, a word that starts with W is "Winner"! Here is one of our winners of the children's raffle that was held this week. Thanks to your donations, the school was able to raise over $3,000 just on the children's raffle! AMAZING!  We were absolutely stunned at that fantastic amount raised!

I was particularly proud of my kiddos for being "good sports" if they didn't win the basket that they wanted.  That's not easy!  One of the kiddos asked me, "Can we cry about losing the raffle when we get home?" Then one of the other kiddos asked them why they'd want to do that if they weren't crying right now?  Good question!  = ) 

This week we will be practicing words that contain the letter Xx- not necessarily words that begin with Xx.  Share items will follow the same "rule", so don't worry if you don't have a xylophone lying around the house!  = )  

I am looking for one more volunteer for our centers tomorrow (Monday). Please check your schedules and see if you can help out!  I know volunteers start to thin out during these last few weeks (can't believe I'm saying that) of school, but kindergarten really does need you!  Just remember, this really is the last year where you can be in the classroom each week if you really want to!  

Your kiddos can also look forward to seeing their Study Buddies this Wednesday, along with their school Families this Friday.  Remember, kindergartners are donating candy to contribute to their Easter basket that we will be putting together with our school families.  We asked that candy be turned in earlier than Friday so we can make sure there is enough candy for all of the baskets.  Extra candy is always welcome!

Something to keep in the back of everyone's head... Kindergarten will be hosting the school mass on May 2nd (the Friday we return from Easter break!) Yikes!  We will be looking for volunteers to help make our banner for the mass, so keep your eye out on shutterfly!  You will notice a special homework assignment this week regarding our mass banner... of course I will include directions = )

Ok, now that I've set the World's Record for longest blog posting ever, I will leave you now so I can go celebrate my niece's 10th birthday- I've celebrated four birthdays this weekend- crazy! See everyone tomorrow! 

Take care and let's hope for a nice, calm week!